In a case of serendipitous schedule juggling, the masterful American pianist Garrick Ohlsson showed up for a “make-up” date at the Lobero Theatre last week after canceling his January performance due to illness, and the timing was unexpectedly august. With this late-breaking booking, Ohlsson’s profound all-Chopin program supplied a moving finale duty for the CAMA season, one more intimate and personal than the recent L.A. Philharmonic concert that would have closed out the 2024-25 roster.
Moreover, the timing of Ohlsson’s concert happened to offer a poetic sendoff to retiring CAMA director Mark Trueblood’s 27-year tenure at the head of this important music presenting organization in town. All was well, as if an intentional plan put into place by fate.
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore 
CAMA Director Mark Trueblood bids adieu after 27 years at the helm. | Credit: David Bazemore
As a familiar preface to the music, Trueblood gave his final bow in the role of concert introducer, in his soft-spoken and articulate patois, mentioning that Ohlsson had been CAMA-hosted in Santa Barbara seven times in the past, including another all-Chopin recital in 1985.
Fortuitously, this latest Lobero recital opened with the same two nocturnes from his appearance 40 years ago, Chopin’s Nocturne in F and B, Opuses 1 and 3, and ended with the four-movement sweep of his Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, written in 1844 — five years before the Polish French composer died, aged 39. Between these programming bookends, we got a hearty taste of the composer’s range and vision, with a Barcarolle, Fantasy, Scherzo, and Impromptu adding up to a twin portrait of the artists — composer and his trusty contemporary messenger disciple.
Ohlsson, 77, has shown himself to be an adaptable interpreter of classical repertoire of many eras and composer-focused areas, but he has a special and lived-in relationship with the Chopin realm. Winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Ohlsson has gone on to master the Chopin realm, on recordings and in concert.
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore 
Garrick Ohlsson | Credit: David Bazemore
At the Lobero, he gave a command performance, demonstrating his unusual degree of subtle nuance and painterly dynamics in a field where too many pianists have capitalized on the alternately lyrical and flashy passages in Chopin’s Romantic piano music to brandish their virtuosity cred. By contrast, Ohlsson has the ideal touch — of head, heart, and nimble fingers, to bring Chopin to life on deep and delicately balanced levels.
At the Lobero, the balance extended from the fluid expressive poles in the Nocturne to the quixotic — but never hurried — flurries in the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor closing out the concert’s first half. In Ohlsson’s deft hands, the third Sonata had the feel and expanse of a small musical world unto itself. The whirl of notes in the Scherzo gives way to the gentle eddies of the Largo and concentric energies build to an emotionally fulfilling end game. Through it all, Ohlsson applied his measured approach to Chopin’s mercurial extremes without excessive dramatics in either the lyrical or pyrotechnical elements. He still does Chopin just right.
As a bon bon of an encore, Ohlsson called on the evergreen “hit” Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2. Although one of those perhaps too often-heard items on the classical radio-scape, Ohlsson brought to this small gem a fresh and fully aware presence: That’s the way he rolls.
And with that crowd-pleasing grace note, the book closed on another fine CAMA season, and the fruitful Mark Trueblood era of CAMA stewardship.
